Stop the badger cull petition. Please sign

I think they must know who's on their side. We have suddenly developed great holes under our fence - if we mend one the next day something has bashed another hole in the fence. Yes, bashed with force. So we have decided to leave the latest hole and just reinforce the fence around it. Last night I put peanuts near the hole and this morning they were gone.
There is another hole the other side the garden we have now discovered.
We live in a road but quite near countryside - we think there must be a run all through the gardens.

Ah no, it's cow pox/smallpox I'm thinking of.

jess, this may be apocryphal, but I'm sure I heard when I was but a sprog that milk maids tended to have a natural immunity to TB. Got some scientists wondering how...

<Bags heads wikiwards in search of info>

Thank you Oldgreymare - will check for relevant articles. Most areas have a 'badger group' - there should me one near you, Check on

www.badgertrust.org

The postponement seems to have been due to totally inaccurate estimates on the behalf of DEFRA re numbers - and a realisation that they whole plan was not feasible at the moment it seems. Another great month for our esteemed coalition government.
I was listening to a science prog last night in which they said the prevailing theory about TB in humans is that it transferred from cattle.

True Carbon Anyway, which came first, TB in cattle or TB in badgers? I remember many years (50s I think) ago milk bottles were labelled TT which stood for tuberculin tested.

My great dread is the establishment of those huge 'factory' dairies where hundreds of cows are kept together in enclosed buildings, euphemistically called 'loose housing systems', rather like battery hens.

granjura the 'cull' has been postponed!!!!! Because of the petition (150,000 plus signatures) the matter was debated in parliament a few days ago and the government was defeated by 147 votes to 28. I am unable to post links but you could maybe 'Google' badger cull and find the article which was in the Guardian Newspaper.

An interesting point made recently: low milk prices mean farmers can't afford to look after their cows properly. Unhealthy cows are far more likely to catch TB
Think poverty in the Archers just now.

Granjura on our local news, tonight, they reported that the petition had 150,000 signatures and said that the Ministers looked forward to debating the issue so that they could better inform the public! HRMPH! They also said that the 'cull' was due to start soon! I am going to see if I can find a local protest group, will keep you posted.

If the intention is to stop the transmission of TB from badgers to cattle and they won't use vaccination, reducing numbers is a waste of time. In no sense is this a 'cull'.

It depends on the criteria, Lilygran. A cull can also be put in place to reduce numbers.

I thought a 'cull' was a process of weeding out sick, old, injured animals. The intention of the present plan is to exterminate all they can find in a given area. I think, like OGM that I heard there will have to be a debate now. Good.

Can anybody from Somerset or Gloustershire report back on what is happening? Please.

Whitewave, young are usually born January/Feb and come above ground around Easter. By now they should all be above ground and feeding independently, and about to be kicked out as the mating season will soon be starting. Badgers btw have a very clever way to delay implantation of foetus - the female can mate and store fertilised eggs until she decides the time is right to start them growing.

Has it started yet? It is intended to kill them at night so sows with young may well be killed and the young will of course starve to death - dear oh dear! Is there no compassion at all? Is that legal or a case of animal cruelty?

I heard ,on the news last night, that the petition now has reached the magic number and the Gov. will be forced to debate the issue.... I didn't dream it did I?

Hello again carbon, you've hit the nail on the head, again. Of course cull sounds more humane than kill.
Our town council have declared their opposition which could prove quite interesting as our local M.P. is now Minister for Agric. etc. and has declared his support for the 'cull'!

No badgers are going to be culled. To cull means to take out the old and sick to improve the health of the animals. Badgers are going to be indiscriminately slaughtered. There's no two ways about it. I think we should not allow them to get away with using words incorrectly to make it sound "nicer".

"The majority of warm blooded animals are able to host the disease including cattle, sheep, horses, foxes, badgers, dogs and cats." www.netvet.co.uk/cattle/tuberculosis.htm
Also rabbits!

Should we also be culling all sheep, horses, foxes, dogs and cats? and rabbits?

A very technical survey into Bovine tuberculosis in British farmland wildlife reported at rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1584/357.full.pdf says "Mycobacterium bovis was isolated from badgers on two of the four case farms, and from no badgers on the two control farms, where representative trapping was possible." [from 10 397 samples of assorted wildlife on twelve dairy farms] and one case was found in a bank vole - the first time that has been found.

But which direction did the infection go? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Well, I see the producers of 'Country File' have nailed their colours to the mast when Julia Bradbury said....... 'and the part they play in Bovine T.B. ' (Sorry if it is not verbatim.) referring to future prospects for the Badger population.
It was also interesting to see that the early wildlife film-makers valued the badger so much as to make him the subject of their films.

Well wouldn't you know it.... hrmph! I wonder whether that'll stop 'em.
Will read article in a mo'

Beeb News has an article today about a letter from 'experts' in both the UK and the US saying that the proposed cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire could cause an increase in bovine TB.

It's reached over 100,000 which is the number to trigger a debate in parliament - however this is not automatic so the pressure must be kept on

I switched over after the discussion had started on Newsnight last night, but I think I heard that this petition was one of 'the fastest growing' of all time!
I also think I may have heard that 'the minister for badgers' David (look out Lords, here I come) Heath had declined the offer of appearing on the programme!
Did anyone else see this?
I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but is it possible that cattle pass on the infection to badgers, not the other way around?
Clarrisa Dickson Wright seems, surprisingly, to be on the side of badgers, citing modern farming methods of crowding cows together to be one of the possible causes of the spread of bovine T.B.
Imagine if those 'super dairies' were to be introduced!

Thanks bags - signed it.

bump

Thank you, Nanad - very interesting. It would seem that EU regulations are once more part of the problem.